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MAN(1)			    General Commands Manual			MAN(1)

NAME
       man -- display online manual documentation pages

SYNOPSIS
       man   [-adho]   [-t   |	-w]  [-M  manpath]  [-P	 pager]	 [-S  mansect]
	   [-m arch[:machine]] [-p [eprtv]] [mansect] page ...
       man -K regexp ...
       man -f keyword ...
       man -k keyword ...

DESCRIPTION
       The man utility finds and displays online manual	 documentation	pages.
       If  mansect  is provided, man restricts the search to the specific sec-
       tion of the manual.

       The sections of the manual are:
	     1.	  FreeBSD General Commands Manual
	     2.	  FreeBSD System Calls Manual
	     3.	  FreeBSD Library Functions Manual
	     4.	  FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual
	     5.	  FreeBSD File Formats Manual
	     6.	  FreeBSD Games	Manual
	     7.	  FreeBSD Miscellaneous	Information Manual
	     8.	  FreeBSD System Manager's Manual
	     9.	  FreeBSD Kernel Developer's Manual

       Options that man	understands:

       -K regexp
	       Does a full text	search in all manual pages.  regexp is a regu-
	       lar expression as understood by "grep  -E".   This  option  re-
	       quires mandoc(1).  This is a slow operation.

       -M manpath
	       Forces  a  specific  colon separated manual path	instead	of the
	       default search path.  See manpath(1).   Overrides  the  MANPATH
	       environment variable.

       -P pager
	       Use  specified  pager.  Defaults	to "less -sR" if color support
	       is enabled, or "less -s".  Overrides the	 MANPAGER  environment
	       variable,  which	 in turn overrides the PAGER environment vari-
	       able.

       -S mansect
	       Restricts manual	sections searched to the specified  colon  de-
	       limited list.  Defaults to "1:8:2:3:3lua:n:4:5:6:7:9:l".	 Over-
	       rides the MANSECT environment variable.

       -a      Display	all  manual  pages instead of just the first found for
	       each page argument.

       -d      Print extra debugging information.  Repeat for  increased  ver-
	       bosity.	Does not display the manual page.

       -f      Emulate whatis(1).

       -h      Display short help message and exit.

       -k      Emulate apropos(1).

       -m arch[:machine]
	       Override	the default architecture and machine settings allowing
	       lookup	of   other   platform	specific  manual  pages.   See
	       "IMPLEMENTATION NOTES" for how this option changes the  default
	       behavior.   Overrides  the MACHINE_ARCH and MACHINE environment
	       variables.

       -o      Force use of non-localized manual pages.	  See  "IMPLEMENTATION
	       NOTES"  for  how	 locale	specific searches work.	 Overrides the
	       LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables.

       -p [eprtv]
	       Use the list of given  preprocessors  before  running  nroff(1)
	       (ports/textproc/groff)	or   troff(1)  (ports/textproc/groff).
	       Valid preprocessors arguments:

	       e       eqn(1) (ports/textproc/groff)
	       p       pic(1) (ports/textproc/groff)
	       r       refer(1)	(ports/textproc/groff)
	       t       tbl(1) (ports/textproc/groff)
	       v       vgrind(1)

	       Overrides the MANROFFSEQ	environment variable.

       -t      Send manual page	source through troff(1)	(ports/textproc/groff)
	       allowing	transformation of the manual pages to other formats.

       -w      Display the location of the manual page instead of the contents
	       of the manual page.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
   Locale Specific Searches
       The man utility supports	manual pages in	different locales.  The	search
       behavior	is dictated by the first of three environment variables	with a
       nonempty	string:	LC_ALL,	LC_CTYPE, or LANG.  If set,  man  will	search
       for locale specific manual pages	using the following logic:

	     lang_country.charset
	     lang.charset
	     en.charset

       For  example,  if  LC_ALL  is set to "ja_JP.eucJP", man will search the
       following  paths	 when  considering   section   1   manual   pages   in
       /usr/share/man:

	     /usr/share/man/ja_JP.eucJP/man1
	     /usr/share/man/ja.eucJP/man1
	     /usr/share/man/en.eucJP/man1
	     /usr/share/man/man1

   Platform Specific Searches
       The  man	 utility  supports platform specific manual pages.  The	search
       behavior	is dictated by the -m option or	the MACHINE_ARCH  and  MACHINE
       environment   variables.	  For  example,	 if  MACHINE_ARCH  is  set  to
       "aarch64" and MACHINE is	set to "arm64",	man will search	the  following
       paths when considering section 4	manual pages in	/usr/share/man:

	     /usr/share/man/man4/aarch64
	     /usr/share/man/man4/arm64
	     /usr/share/man/man4

   Displaying Specific Manual Files
       The  man	 utility  also	supports  displaying a specific	manual page if
       passed a	path to	the file as long as it contains	a `/' character.

ENVIRONMENT
       The following environment variables affect the execution	of man:

       LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG
		   Used	to find	locale specific	manual	pages.	 Valid	values
		   can	be  found  by  running	the  locale(1)	command.   See
		   "IMPLEMENTATION NOTES" for details.	Influenced by  the  -o
		   option.

       MACHINE_ARCH, MACHINE
		   Used	to find	platform specific manual pages.	 If unset, the
		   output  of "sysctl hw.machine_arch" and "sysctl hw.machine"
		   is used respectively.  See "IMPLEMENTATION NOTES"  for  de-
		   tails.  Corresponds to the -m option.

       MANPATH	   The	standard  search path used by man(1) may be changed by
		   specifying a	path in	the MANPATH environment	variable.  In-
		   valid paths,	or paths without  manual  databases,  are  ig-
		   nored.   Overridden by -M.  If MANPATH begins with a	colon,
		   it is appended to the default  list;	 if  it	 ends  with  a
		   colon,  it  is prepended to the default list; or if it con-
		   tains two adjacent colons, the standard search path is  in-
		   serted between the colons.  If none of these	conditions are
		   met,	it overrides the standard search path.

       MANROFFSEQ  Used	 to  determine the preprocessors for the manual	source
		   before running nroff(1) (ports/textproc/groff) or  troff(1)
		   (ports/textproc/groff).    If  unset,  defaults  to	tbl(1)
		   (ports/textproc/groff).  Corresponds	to the -p option.

       MANSECT	   Restricts manual sections searched to the  specified	 colon
		   delimited list.  Corresponds	to the -S option.

       MANWIDTH	   If  set  to	a  numeric  value,  used as the	width manpages
		   should be displayed.	 Otherwise, if set to a	special	 value
		   "tty",  and	output is to a terminal, the pages may be dis-
		   played over the whole width of the screen.

       MANCOLOR	   If set, enables color support.

       MANPAGER	   Program used	to display files.

		   If unset, and color support is enabled, "less -sR" is used.

		   If unset, and color support	is  disabled,  then  PAGER  is
		   used.  If that has no value either, "less -s" is used.

FILES
       /etc/man.conf
	       System configuration file.
       /usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
	       Local configuration files.

EXIT STATUS
       The man utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an	error occurs.

EXAMPLES
       Show the	manual page for	stat(2):

	     $ man 2 stat

       Show all	manual pages for `stat'.

	     $ man -a stat

       List  manual pages which	match the regular expression either in the ti-
       tle or in the body:

	     $ man -k '\<copy\>.*archive'

       Show the	manual page for	ls(1) and use cat(1) as	pager:

	     $ man -P cat ls

       Show the	location of the	ls(1) manual page:

	     $ man -w ls

       Show the	location of manual pages in sections 1 and 8 which contain the
       word `arm':

	     $ ./man -w	-K '\<arm\>' -S	1:8

SEE ALSO
       apropos(1),  egrep(1),  intro(1),  mandoc(1),  manpath(1),   whatis(1),
       intro(2),   intro(3),  intro(3lua),  intro(4),  intro(5),  man.conf(5),
       intro(6), intro(7), mdoc(7), intro(8), intro(9)

FreeBSD	13.2		       January 26, 2022				MAN(1)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | IMPLEMENTATION NOTES | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | EXIT STATUS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=man&manpath=FreeBSD+14.0-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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